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SETBACK!!!

Sadly, I experienced a major setback with the execution plans as the Natural Resource department informed me that the filming application I sent in would take 12-15 weeks before it gets approved and this project absolutely cannot wait that long. I had to go back to the drawing board to rethink of another location to film.

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I came up with a straight forward storyboard. The story is basically of a scientist who discovered a place with ‘zero gravity’.

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COLOR: Reference

Brinkmann (2008:17) pointed out that – “a color will appear more vibrant and saturated when surrounded by complimentary colors – red surrounded by cyan or green”. In view of this, I looked at pictures of a green background with a character in red outfit (eg. Little red riding hood).

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Camera Motion

 I expect most of the scene to be tracked, and with that in mind, I opted to use a DJI ronin MX gimbal for smooth camera movements. Worst case scenario, I’d add a camera shake within Nuke (If the scene absolutely needs it).

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LIGHTING

 To further expand the color contrast captured on camera, I decided to use Roto-lights to serve as a secondary illumination for the scene. The plan is to use the gels to compliment the environmental light of the scene.

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CINEMATOGRAPHY

Based off the predetermined look, I decided to film with a camera that had a high dynamic range – so as to be able to explore and push different aspects of the color palette. I settled with a Black Magic 4k Cinema camera.

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red in the woods (Picture References)

I looked into stock images of people in the woods, dressed in red (so as to justify the law of simultaneous contrast.

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Color VS Costume

Finally I looked into what outfit would complement the look I was going for; and I considered this based on the “Principle of Simultaneous Contrast”. If the woods is going to be predominantly green, I expect a red outfit to pop out!

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Color II

I noticed another set of color graded woods, that had heavy browns and barely visible greens. This portrays a sens of deserted, no-life existence. Based on this, if there is zero gravity on earth, things around the said place wouldn’t be as normal.

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Color

I looked into photos of how the woods have been graded. Quite a number of them have a cyan tint to the greens

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Location

Following a long search/inquiry, I decided to film in the woods, particularly at the Three Bears Cave (CF15 7JR). The route into the cave has some sort of depth which I found interesting.

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Pre-Production

I have learnt from experience to never ‘fix it in post’. So I was considering the final look of the piece as early as the preproduction stage – Color, viz-a-viz costume as well as framing. Due to the Covid limitations, I wanted to go for an outdoor scene (to reduce my lighting considerations and extra hands involved); a place with limited people moving around. 

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RESEARCH: Zero Gravity (VFX)

I looked into VFX shots that recreated the zero gravity concept.

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RESEARCH: Xero Gravity (Real Life)

I came caross a music video that was shot in zero gravity... It was interesting to see how objects like paint reacted differently to water.

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RESEARCH: Zero Gravity (Real Life)

I looked into footage from NASA, as well as other space travellers... to see how objects react whan exposed to zero gravity

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I came across an image that gives a sense of the result of manipulated gravity. Both objects are acting based off of equal forces, (not influenced by mass)

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RESEARCH: Science of Gravity

Based on my studies, I discovered that:

- The impact of gravity is subject to the mass of the object, as well as its distance away from the earth

- Upon gravitational impact, speed of object towards the ground increases at 9.81m/s2 (every second).

-  Gravity is responsible for our experiencing impact of weight.

THEREFORE, WHEN GRAVITY = 0

- There is no force (F) impact on object/matter. 

- Movement/direction is dependent of micro forces like wind, and external push; with object’s mass playing NO ROLE.

- We feel NO impact of weight.